In light of the Hot Coffee minigame scandal with GTA:SA, I am very disappointed in the industry which I have so staunchly defended for so long. I am not disappointed at all because of the content of the minigame, but because of the fact that Rockstar Games violated the full-disclosure policies of the ESRB by not submitting the minigame for the ratings review. In my disappointment, I mistakenly got involved with an online messageboard discussion and I am amazed at how much information people think they absorb but don't.
To explain my point, it must be said that what I stated above is exactly what I posted on the messageboard: basically, "It's not the content but the cover-up that concerns me." The reasons should be obvious. First, this casts a lot of doubt on the veracity of anything that those in the industry have to say about their products. Secondly, politicians have been waiting for the first easy chance to strike at video games and this stupid fiasco is the perfect opportunity to do so.
Unfortunately, when I'd rather discuss the full disclosure violation and make it totally clear that I don't have an issue with the content being in the game, the argument always comes back to the content and avoids facing the lie. Except for one comment, most people on the messageboard who are still supporting Rockstar aren't paying one bit of attention to the fact that Rockstar violated a clear policy of the ESRB, but instead, they are focusing their argument on the content, conservativism, and the pair's influence on American culture. The only comment that didn't switch the argument's topic actually attempted to defend the violation of the policy with a weak allegation of induced fear due to political pressure.
Regardless, everytime the argument flopped over to the questions about the content and American moral culture, another participant and myself attempted to move it back to the clear ESRB policy violation. But, it seems that our efforts are to no avail. We continue to be labled as stuffy, panicking, over-moral Americans (mostly by Europeans) when we have continually made it crystal clear that our argument does not concern those issues. I have since given up the argument, but I am left with some questions: How much information do people really receive and interpret? How much of what little information we do recieve and process do we need to start labeling ourselves experts? Why do I feel such a need to continue arguing with someone who obviously isn't really listening to what I am saying?
In the end, I violated my own rule of not getting into arguments on the internet and I am paying for it dearly because I am a competitive person. I want to win that argument so badly by going back to previous posts to pull quotes and responses to quotes in order to prove that the thread continues to avoid the true argument. I know that continuing to argue is futile and so I have abandoned the argument. In my mind, I know I did not lose because I made my point clear and it was misconstrued and misused and, frankly, at times it was even ignored. But, by abandoning the argument I appear to have lost because I have stopped fighting. I find stepping away to be the hardest thing to do.
------
If you made it all the way through, thanks for reading. If not, that's ok too. Writing this saved me from continuing to bicker with random strangers on the internet. Fortunately, the board I was on is a professional board (GANG) so people are not very likely to resort to flaming, which is the only saving grace of the whole debacle.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Not Increvable
Mike and Pam are arriving at Midway airport tonight so Amy is scheduled to leave straight from where she works at 6pm and pick them up. Then they might have dinner out somewhere, which means that they could potentially arrive back in our neck of the woods around 8:30-9pm. I had promised Evan to an evening of World of Warcraft tonight, so as usual, I will ride my bike to and from work in order to be home in time for the game.
Now, at 7:30am this morning, that seemed like a solid plan bound for success. But by 8am, things had taken an interesting turn. As I biked toward Gross Point Road on the path I usually take to work, I ran over something that sounded like a small rock or perhaps an acorn top as it might gets thrown from under the tire with some extra force. Unfortunately, I only made it across Gross Point Road when I began to hear a rhythmic hiss eminating from my back tire. Psht! Psht! Psht! Every time the wheel went around it was losing air. Crap. I had already come up with a course of action in case this happened, but unfortunately, it involved Amy picking me up from work which, if you remember, probably wouldn't be able to happen until at least 8:30pm.
So at that point I figured it was time to learn how to use the tools that I keep in my bag for just such an emergency. "But wait," I thought. "I put a change of clothes in my bag this morning. And to do that I had to take out my TOOLS! Argh. So, I called Jordan and left a message that I would be running about 30 minutes late because I had to walk the rest of the way to work. Only seconds after beginning my walk, I passed Ruth, a woman who attends our church, walking in the opposite direction. We greeted each other and spoke briefly but she was not able to help me out and I was on my way again.
When I arrived at work, I examined the tire more carefully and located the culprit: a nail. At that point, I asked Chris, one of my coworkers, if he had driven his car that day. I was going to ask if he'd be able to give me a lift home over lunch to get my tools and the tire pump. As it turns out, he had ridden his bike, too, so I had no luck there. But, he did have a repair kit of his own in his bag. So over lunch, he helped me try to patch the tube, but it had been punctured in multiple spots and he had just enough patches to cover all of holes. Hopefully, we'd found all the holes. Once the holes were patched, we walked the bike to a gas station to use the air pump. Nothing. The tube wouldn't hold any air at all.
So after lunch, Jordan was very cool and drove me home to get my tools and the bike pump. Once I retrieved those items, I asked Chris to help me put the new tube since I'd never done it before. So, he agreed, and the new tube is in, but it was a larger circumference than the rim, so I'm not sure if it's in correctly. I'm definitely making a trip to the bike shop this weekend to learn about the reason for the extra length on the tube and how to definitively use the tools I will no doubt have in my possession in the future.
Now, at 7:30am this morning, that seemed like a solid plan bound for success. But by 8am, things had taken an interesting turn. As I biked toward Gross Point Road on the path I usually take to work, I ran over something that sounded like a small rock or perhaps an acorn top as it might gets thrown from under the tire with some extra force. Unfortunately, I only made it across Gross Point Road when I began to hear a rhythmic hiss eminating from my back tire. Psht! Psht! Psht! Every time the wheel went around it was losing air. Crap. I had already come up with a course of action in case this happened, but unfortunately, it involved Amy picking me up from work which, if you remember, probably wouldn't be able to happen until at least 8:30pm.
So at that point I figured it was time to learn how to use the tools that I keep in my bag for just such an emergency. "But wait," I thought. "I put a change of clothes in my bag this morning. And to do that I had to take out my TOOLS! Argh. So, I called Jordan and left a message that I would be running about 30 minutes late because I had to walk the rest of the way to work. Only seconds after beginning my walk, I passed Ruth, a woman who attends our church, walking in the opposite direction. We greeted each other and spoke briefly but she was not able to help me out and I was on my way again.
When I arrived at work, I examined the tire more carefully and located the culprit: a nail. At that point, I asked Chris, one of my coworkers, if he had driven his car that day. I was going to ask if he'd be able to give me a lift home over lunch to get my tools and the tire pump. As it turns out, he had ridden his bike, too, so I had no luck there. But, he did have a repair kit of his own in his bag. So over lunch, he helped me try to patch the tube, but it had been punctured in multiple spots and he had just enough patches to cover all of holes. Hopefully, we'd found all the holes. Once the holes were patched, we walked the bike to a gas station to use the air pump. Nothing. The tube wouldn't hold any air at all.
So after lunch, Jordan was very cool and drove me home to get my tools and the bike pump. Once I retrieved those items, I asked Chris to help me put the new tube since I'd never done it before. So, he agreed, and the new tube is in, but it was a larger circumference than the rim, so I'm not sure if it's in correctly. I'm definitely making a trip to the bike shop this weekend to learn about the reason for the extra length on the tube and how to definitively use the tools I will no doubt have in my possession in the future.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Look! Skyflowers! Crash!
After years of waiting, Amy finally has her cherished table and buffet that belonged to her grandmother. Over this past holiday weekend, we traveled home, visited with family, picked up the furniture and traveled home. I'll post some pictures of the table in its new home when I get a chance to take some. Interestingly, the table's new home is not very far from its first one. After we had taken the table apart, we noticed a label that indicated that it had been made in Rockford, Illinois. Then it was bought and sold by Kaufmanns in Pennsylvania.
The return trip was mostly uneventful. The only drawback in traveling in the darkness of the 4th of July is that eventually, public fireworks displays begin to appear all over the horizon and some travelers forget that they are going 70-75 miles per hour on an interstate highway which leads to a lot of unnecessary maneuvering. Add to that a steady downpour and things can get downright ugly. We saw lots of close calls and one accident which was unrelated to the fireworks, but we remained out of harm's grip.
Prior to the July 4th weekend, Ian and Rachel were in Chicago to visit before their trip to the Dominican Republic. We spent some time at the taste on Sunday and Amy took them to a graveyard (I don't remember which one) that is the final resting place of a number of famous Chicagoans. It was very cool to hang out with them again. Oh, they came bearing a gift from Joel, too: six white peaches from his fruit market. Thanks, Joel! The peaches were delicious.
Currently listening to: Night Marchers, Medeski, Martin & Wood
The return trip was mostly uneventful. The only drawback in traveling in the darkness of the 4th of July is that eventually, public fireworks displays begin to appear all over the horizon and some travelers forget that they are going 70-75 miles per hour on an interstate highway which leads to a lot of unnecessary maneuvering. Add to that a steady downpour and things can get downright ugly. We saw lots of close calls and one accident which was unrelated to the fireworks, but we remained out of harm's grip.
Prior to the July 4th weekend, Ian and Rachel were in Chicago to visit before their trip to the Dominican Republic. We spent some time at the taste on Sunday and Amy took them to a graveyard (I don't remember which one) that is the final resting place of a number of famous Chicagoans. It was very cool to hang out with them again. Oh, they came bearing a gift from Joel, too: six white peaches from his fruit market. Thanks, Joel! The peaches were delicious.
Currently listening to: Night Marchers, Medeski, Martin & Wood
Monday, June 20, 2005
A John Cage Picnic
In my previous post, I mentioned one of the superstitions surrounding my company's annual picnic. Basically, the superstition says that if one were to perform for the picnic's talent show, then one would not be employed at PIL the following year. But, what happens when the picnic itself becomes the performance?
That's right, folks, the picnic has been cancelled! Wheeeee! The e-mail that delivered the news was one of the most wonderful works of Dilbert-ism that I have seen in recent months. It basically began, "I am pleased to announce..." and then went on to describe the cancellation of the picnic as well as explain the added bonus of getting a half-day off instead. I thought that mentioning the half-day "bonus" was an odd choice considering that if we actually had the picnic, we'd get the half-day off anyway! The only difference without the picnic is that we don't get to head out to the forest preserve to drink beer and eat some food in the sunshine among the company of our co-workers. I guess if I really hated my co-workers that would be a bonus. Unfortunately, I don't hate them. I don't even not like them a little.
On another work note, the new audio person started today so we went out to Buffalo Wild Wings for our New Guy Lunch. It's a strange situation for me, because while I am no longer the newest member of the full-time audio staff, I am still the one with the least amount of experience. The new hire, whose name is Eddie, has lots more experience than me in terms of audio gigs, and has already worked on lots of projects for PIL as a freelancer. So, while I don't know how this will affect me in the long term, in the short term, I still feel like the guy on the bottom of the totem pole.
That's right, folks, the picnic has been cancelled! Wheeeee! The e-mail that delivered the news was one of the most wonderful works of Dilbert-ism that I have seen in recent months. It basically began, "I am pleased to announce..." and then went on to describe the cancellation of the picnic as well as explain the added bonus of getting a half-day off instead. I thought that mentioning the half-day "bonus" was an odd choice considering that if we actually had the picnic, we'd get the half-day off anyway! The only difference without the picnic is that we don't get to head out to the forest preserve to drink beer and eat some food in the sunshine among the company of our co-workers. I guess if I really hated my co-workers that would be a bonus. Unfortunately, I don't hate them. I don't even not like them a little.
On another work note, the new audio person started today so we went out to Buffalo Wild Wings for our New Guy Lunch. It's a strange situation for me, because while I am no longer the newest member of the full-time audio staff, I am still the one with the least amount of experience. The new hire, whose name is Eddie, has lots more experience than me in terms of audio gigs, and has already worked on lots of projects for PIL as a freelancer. So, while I don't know how this will affect me in the long term, in the short term, I still feel like the guy on the bottom of the totem pole.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)